Speaker - March 2009

sick a day in my life, this healthy 40-something would leave the hospital 21 days later looking more like a feeble 80-something.

For the first two days, I riled in pain, curled in a fetal position with morphine dripping into my veins. The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me. I muttered my schedule for the coming week to my wife.

“I’m supposed to fly out Monday for a program in Atlanta on Tuesday. I need you to call another trainer to see if he can take my place, and then call the client to see if they’ll accept a substitute. Then, you need to call the airline and change the flights ...”

I was giving away work and watching money go out the door. And it was about to get worse.

After two days with no diagnosis, doctors performed exploratory surgery. Five-and-a-half hours later, they rolled me into recovery. There my wife whispered that the pain I felt was a blood clot that had killed 60 percent of my small intestines. Doctors had removed 10 feet of dead tissue and I had an ostomy bag on my side.

Soon, my surgeon came to my bedside and said, “Your wife tells me you’re a speaker and you travel all over for work. Well, you’re not going to be able to do that anymore. I don’t want you to do anything for the next six months except rest and recover. If you listen to me, you’ll be OK. If you don’t listen to me, you’ll die.”

Along with my character flaw of “going overboard,”

I also lacked patience and humility. Well, God had just wiped up a big dose of both, and I humbly accepted the doctor’s admonition.

My condition worsened in the coming hours, days and weeks. I crashed that night, endured life-threatening and life-saving emergency surgery the next day, followed by 12 days in intensive care, and a third surgery six weeks later with another extended hospital stay.

your tragedy may be a blessing in disguise. many
speakers develop a new signature story. some learn
new skills and become a subject expert in a new field.

Prepare for the Unexpected

What can you do to prepare your speaking business for illness, death or disaster? First, consider what events might seriously interrupt your business, such as your own illness, fire, natural disasters (flood, tornado, hurricane, etc.), robbery of your office, theft by employees, negligence, the death or illness of your spouse, the death of a business partner, or an economic downturn. Next, ponder how these events would impact your business.

The following guidelines will help you sustain your business during crises. Some tips apply to illness and death, others apply to natural disasters, and many tips apply to both.

ILLNESS

• Make it easy for your spouse or family to collect outstanding debts by creating a folder with unpaid invoices, including pertinent contact information.

• Make sure your family can easily view your calendar, access client contact information and notify your clients regarding your impending absence from an engagement.

• Establish a relationship with speakers in your area of expertise who can fulfill your commitments. Draw up an agreement stating how fees will be split and, in the spirit of NSA and Cavett Robert, CSP, CPAE, whether the other speaker may be willing to remit a portion of the fees back to you in your time of need.

• Review your contracts to determine your obligation to reimburse the client for travel expenses for canceled trips, as well as your liability if a client has expended funds to fly employees to a site for a special training.